Only, the briefing doesn't say where the money's coming from. So I called Park and Rec assistant director Willis Winters and asked. And he says it's coming out of a Fair Park contingency fund -- and that not all of it's going to the aquarium. That more-or-less million will be spread around Fair Park: Some of, he says, will go toward making the parking lot in front of the Texas Discovery Gardens wheelchair-accessible. Turns out it's not, according to a recent inspection conducted by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.

And the city needs to repaint and repair the ceiling at the Fair Park Coliseum, about which the city's received numerous complaints, says Winters. "The ceiling in there is horrible-looking," he says, the result of years of concerts and circuses "poking their rigging gear into the insulation." There's a rodeo in there next month, he says, so it needs to get dolled up pronto. (Which reminds me: Nirvana '93!)

The aquarium will get a bulk of the dough, he says, because the city needs to get it done before the opening is four months off. And, initially, the city had hoped to use the original aquarium staff to do exhibit finish-out. "But it became evident it would take a long, long time to do it" using DZM staff, he says. "We agreed to put it into the current contract so it could be done by September." And, well, a few other issues came up because "whenever you're renovating a building that old -- remember, it opened in 1936 -- unforeseen issues arise."